


Delicate

by titaniumsansa



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Angst and Feels, F/F, Falling In Love, Five Stages of Grief, Fluff and Angst, Food as a Metaphor for Love, Friendship/Love, Gay, Grief/Mourning, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I was hungry while writing this and it shows, Inspired by Music, Love, Not Canon Compliant, Snaibsel, Snaibsel Week 2018, snaibselweek2018, summeryjweek2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 19:05:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15467991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/titaniumsansa/pseuds/titaniumsansa
Summary: Artemis feels delicate after Wally dies, and takes time to rebuild her life while falling in love again in the process.





	Delicate

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sunkelles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunkelles/gifts).



> This is super late for Snaibsel Week Day 5! I've been trying to get this out all week! Pretty sure I'm never going to stop writing about what happens right after the s2 finale for Artemis to be honest.  
> I also tagged this as summeryjweek2018 because it could count for the late night/memories prompt or the s3/5 year gap prompt

Artemis knows her reputation must be in the trash. She faked her death, left the Team for a few months with Wally. Wally’s gone and she’s back and it must look like she only came back because he’s gone. He didn’t hold her back from being here-but she can’t help but wonder how it looks to other people. She left the Team, came back to fake her death and hurt all of her friends-for Wally to actually die and for her to disappear again.

  
She stays in their apartment in Palo Alto for the first week. She left at semester so she wouldn’t be stuck with anything unfinished, but now she wishes she had something to catch up on. Artemis knows she could catch up with her friends who thought she was dead, but she doesn’t want to see their angry faces. She also just doesn’t want to see their disappointed faces or hear their accusations. She’s not ready to deal with anything while she’s still full of her own grief. Her current situation with their-her apartment, her relationship with the League and Team, and her own family-it’s all delicate.

  
She hates it. Delicate always seemed like such a useless word to her when she was younger, either something was strong or it was weak. Maybe that’s her father talking, the lessons and hurt he drilled into her head. Maybe it’s practicality, but she’s always seen it that way. Being delicate sucks, she just wants to go back to normality, wishes she could turn back the clock in the living room.  
Wally’s mom bought that clock for them as a housewarming gift. Wally’s dad bought the green couch for them from a garage sale, too light to match her old costume but Wally made jokes about the match anyway. Iris and Barry helped them fill in the gaps of what they had and what they needed. Measuring cups, utensils, Tupperware, pans, kitchen towels and a nice spice cabinet. Her mom gave them a good coffee maker, called it sturdy and reliable, promising good coffee. Artemis sent her pictures every time she used it, and then she gave them mugs, mismatched, all shapes and sizes that were perfect for coffee. The thought makes Artemis smile slightly, she went to her mom the day Wally died. She stayed the night in her old room, told her everything over tea and through tears. Going to Palo Alto didn't feel right, but going to Central City didn't feel right either, and Gotham was home for long that she didn't even think about it. Artemis looks at the rest of the kitchen, thinking about what his parents might want back.

  
Jade dropped by one night after they had settled in, with a knife block. She already gave Wally a nice, lengthy shovel talk when they first started dating, but she gave another one that night. Jade held the knife block in her hands and told Wally if he hurt her sister that she'd put every knife in the block in him. The threat was well-meaning but Wally never hurt her. Except now, but it's his absence that's hurting her, and Jade can't stab that. That's hers, and she tries to think about making a list, but she gives up and looks in the fridge.  
It all seems like it happened a million years ago. Wally was here just a few days ago, the enchiladas he made for dinner are still in the fridge. She wasn’t here a few days ago, though. She wasn’t around to hear him hum as he cooked, or watch him throw whatever he wanted into the tortillas before he rolled them up. Maybe if she doesn’t touch them, he’ll be back for his leftovers, and he’ll grin like he never left her. Artemis entertains the thought for longer than she’d admit before she reminds herself that the only thing that will happen if she leaves food in the fridge too long will be mold. She and Wally never had that problem though, he ate everything before it had the chance to go bad.  
He left the enchiladas behind. He left her behind. He left. Wally isn’t coming back. She should probably get out of the apartment before she drives herself crazy, she thinks as she looks at herself in their bathroom mirror. It’s still his, in a way. He did technically live here longer than she did, and his name is still on the lease. God, that’s going to be a hell of a mess to clean up. Though, she could say that about everything, she thinks as her phone rings.

* * *

  
Zatanna is surprisingly single and free for the night and wants her to come over. She hesitates in going over, but Zatanna promises she'll make dinner and that they won't even go anywhere. Dinner sounds good but she can't remember the last time she ate something substantial. She's had coffee, a lot of coffee, she doesn't want to sleep. Wally haunted her dreams the first night and she's been exhausted for years. It's not healthy but most of her life can be classified as not healthy-everything from childhood to how hard she pushes herself in workouts. Still, Zatanna appears in the apartment when Artemis is putting her hair up.  
"Hey," Zatanna says, voice soft. She looks perfect like always, black tank top and matching shorts. It's summer outside, blazing hot, and humid. She hasn't left the cold apartment in days, hasn't really looked outside. Looking at one of her closest friends, she notices flaws in her own reflection-the bags under her eyes, the exhaustion in every part of her, and she feels like she still looks like a mess.  
"Hey," Artemis echoes, as she decides she likes her ponytail. She doesn't bother with a purse, she only needs her phone and maybe the charger before they go. Zatanna doesn't ask why she hasn't reached out to anyone, why she isn't with Wally's parents, or her own mom, or if she's coming back to the Team.  
"It's good to see you," she says instead, and Artemis knows it's genuine. She feels a rush of gratitude to her, Zatanna's always seemed to be able to pick up what she needs and wants, but she can say the same. They've always just been observant of each other, and she smiles at Zatanna. She can count how many days it's been she's last smiled, but Zatanna just smiles back and asks if she's ready to go. It's time to leave Palo Alto if only for the night, the apartment doesn't need two ghosts.

* * *

  
Shadowcrest is full of light and Artemis thinks about the last few days she's spent almost in the dark. Zatanna leads her to the kitchen, where she can sit at the island. Zatanna sets bread in front of her and doesn't force the conversation as she moves around the kitchen.  
"It's nice to see you, it's been a long time since we've seen each other one on one," Artemis says without thinking. There are reasons for that, Zatanna's in the League now, Artemis and Wally went everywhere together, and she was undercover for a few months. She hopes Zatanna won't bring it up, but she hasn't so far.  
"I need to say something because I need you to know I'm not mad. I knew you weren't dead. The first time I saw a picture of you as Tigress with the necklace I made, that I gave to Dick-I knew. I knew that had to be you because there wasn't really a funeral or anything. There wasn't a death record. And I knew Kaldur wouldn't just go bad. I connected the dots and kept it to myself. I don't blame you, I'm not mad at you. No one's mad at you. Dick's been good with the damage control lately," Zatanna admits, looking her in the eyes. Artemis blinks and her vision blurs slightly. Zatanna has her wrapped up in a hug in seconds.

  
"I"m so sorry. I wanted to tell you. I just wanted to focus on school for a while and then Kaldur and Dick asked me and Wally. And now Wally's gone. And everything seems so heavy because it's just me now," Artemis confesses and Zatanna nods.  
"I get that. But I'm here, right now with you. You don't have to go through all this alone, you have all of us," Zatanna reminds her and Artemis just cries into her shoulder. The weight of having so much off her chest is a relief, and she doesn't know how to say she doesn't know anything about Wally's funeral. She should know, she knows everything else about him, but she doesn't know where the resting place of his empty coffin will be. There wasn't even dust. No proof his body ever existed, no bones or blood or anything to bury or put anywhere.  
"Everything is so delicate right now. I hate it. I hate feeling like this, I hate being classified as delicate. I'm weak," Artemis whispers and Zatanna shakes her head.  
"You're not weak. You're a survivor, and you've gone through a lot. You're gonna make it through this," Zatanna tells her. It almost sounds like a promise. It's so hard to make or accept promises these days. So many of the promises Wally made are just-in the wind, gone, just like him.  
Even now, as Zatanna's holding her like she could protect her from the entire world, like a magical shield-she feels too delicate. It's an interesting mental image, Zatanna protecting her from the world and reality with her magic. Zatanna is her closest friend now, Wally knew all of her secrets, and Zatanna knows most of them. Artemis knows she's spent so much of her week in silence, or talking to Wally like he's still there like he's just in another room and can hear her. Zatanna lets go and looks at her with those vivid blue eyes of hers. Artemis has never seen a blue that's prettier than Zee's eyes or seen the exact color anywhere else.

  
"Shit, the pasta," Zatanna mutters, moving away, and moves to check on the pot on the stove. Artemis laughs in spite of herself, and her ribs almost hurt with the movement, like it's been so long her body forgot what to do when laughing. Maybe it has, but she watches Zatanna say a few spells and work on dinner. She opens up about all of it, being undercover, Stanford, Wally, the apartment, the giant eroteme that's now her future. Zatanna sits with her and eats the first round of way too many carbs with her at the kitchen island. Promises seem out of the question for now.  
"What else can I make you?" Zatanna asks and Artemis grins slightly.  
"A drink," Artemis tells her, half joking.  
"Only if you keep eating and drinking water," Zatanna decides and Artemis nods, those are fair terms. Zatanna pours two glasses of red wine that she promises will pair well with their food. They spill too much truth to be entirely sober as they work on their own bowls of gelato.  
"You and Dick broke up right? I never figured out when that started and ended," Artemis tells her. Zatanna takes a sip of her wine before she answers that.  
"It was short. He's dated everyone but Babs, and I think he knows that when they start dating, that'll be real, and long-term. I don't know if he realized it but I realized within a few days we weren't going to be serious. And I wasn't into that. If I'm putting my time and effort into something, I want it to last and I want it to be real, you know? So after that, I started dating a few people but nothing's really been more than a month. Like I give myself a while to see if something might last long term, but I haven't found anyone who I can just see a future with. I've had a lot of mutual breakups, like Raquel, and Bette. Conner and I almost dated for a few days, but he's still working through his own stuff, you know?" Zatanna sighs. Artemis moves her spoon around in her bowl, she'd forgotten what it was like to want to eat and be awake. She knows she needs to reach out to the Wests when she's not getting drunk, and the rest of her friends.  
"Yeah," she replies and knows she'll be staying in Shadowcrest for the night.

* * *

  
They plan a routine, every Friday night, they'll go out and do dinner. It sounds simple and it's a tiny step to normality, but it's also big at the same time. Artemis helps Barry and Wally's parents get the funeral service together. It's therapeutic to cry with them, and she's thankful. She doesn't feel like a delicate piece of glass around them, because they're all in the same boat. As much as she misses Wally and her heart aches, and as much as her mind loves torturing her with memories of Wally, she knows it has to be worse for his parents. She's known Wally for a handful of years compared to them, they knew him his entire life, and their only child is gone. At least Dick let her tell her mom she was faking her death, so she wasn't put through this much grief.  
The funeral is fine. It's not perfect, but she made sure it didn't feel rushed, and most of the Team shows up. Some of the members who didn't know him stay away, just like the League.

  
Zatanna holds her hand as she cries, and she grips it too tight to be comfortable but she needs someone to hold her hand. She can see Mary and Rudy doing the same, like Dick sitting with Barbara, a few feet away. There's something about funerals that makes people need to hold someone tight, as a reminder that someone else is there. The preacher knew Wally when he was younger, and a lot of his extended family is here, spread out in the rows. Artemis kinda thought the next time she'd see them was going to be her wedding to Wally, not like this, never like this. Barry came up with some way to explain his death and lack of body, Artemis couldn't stop crying when they went over that part. Zatanna just lets her hold her hand too tightly and does act like a shield after, in a way. There are a lot of people who want to ask her and Wally's parents about his death and ramble about him, and Zatanna gets them away when they've talked too long or insensitive. She doesn't have the words to tell Zatanna how thankful she is for her.  
That night, Artemis buys the alcohol as they go back to Shadowcrest. Maybe it's too early for day drinking, but Zatanna doesn't say anything as she buys wine before they swing by her apartment to grab her already packed overnight bag. Artemis wants out of her black dress as soon as possible, it feels too hot for a summer funeral but she didn't have much time to get anything else together.

* * *

  
Zatanna orders too much food, but they didn't eat much of anything all day. There was so much food at the funeral, casseroles, everything people brought, too much food for anyone but speedsters. So many people made Wally's favorites-and Artemis thinks of the enchiladas she threw out, ages ago. They drink and talk about everything and everyone, and Zatanna makes sure that they're drinking water between glasses of wine. After a while, Artemis stops talking about Wally or any of the heavy stuff. There's only so much she can say before she's just repeating herself.  
She wonders if this is how Zatanna felt when she lost her dad, deep losses in different ways. She doesn't have to ask if Zatanna's still looking for a way to free her dad, of course she is.

If she knew without a doubt that she could save Wally or bring him back without messing him up or going too far-she would. There's probably dark magic or a sacrifice she could use to bring him back. There has to be some way to cheat death that someone knows. The thought isn't tempting. Wally died a hero's death and as much as it feels like someone split her ribs apart to rip her heart out-she wouldn't bring him back like that. He would never forgive her and she knows Zatanna wouldn't let her go to the dark side for help. She's not going to ask supervillains to bring him back and potentially bring him back wrong. As much as she misses him, she knows he's not in the speedforce. He's not coming back. There's not a way to bring him back, but there has to be a way to bring Zatara back. Zatanna hasn't mentioned her dad in the last few weeks and Artemis wants to ask how the research is going, but she knows she's too drunk to make the words come out right. Zatanna's unending work to save her father is delicate. She used to give her news about hopeful leads, but Zatanna chased them all. Artemis wonders briefly if Zatanna ever considered going to the dark side to get her father back either. Maybe they had the same thoughts, she's sure Zatara wouldn't want that for his daughter. Artemis watches Zee from her armchair and drinks more water, she can ask about it when she's sober.

* * *

  
The next morning, Zatanna makes breakfast and sends Artemis back to Palo Alto. The apartment isn't exactly dirty, but she needs to clean it out. She needs to go through Wally's things and figure out what she wants to keep and finally look for what Mary and Rudy want. They've been kind enough to wait until she's ready. Artemis isn't sure if she is ready, but she's always ripped off band-aids instead of waiting to things to heal. Maybe this isn't the best idea before coffee and breakfast, but she's tired of feeling like she needs someone there. Dick doesn't need to hold her hand, she doesn't need Zatanna to ask if she needs a break from labeling boxes, she doesn't need Dinah to ask how she feels about this, she wants to stop feeling delicate already. She's in pain, but she doesn't want to be seen as vulnerable. She was taught that being weak was worse than anything else. When Sportsmaster was raising her, she saw the world differently, like it would have been better to bleed out on the street than ask someone to get help. She knows that's wrong now, she does, she's done her best to unlearn all the fucked up shit her dad did, but it slips out sometimes. She wants to stop feeling like a wounded animal. She's over it and she was over it on day one. It's not that the pain isn't worth feeling or that she shouldn't feel it, she wants to mourn Wally properly. She's just tired of feeling like everyone's looking at her like she's a bird with a broken wing.  
Part of her brain thinks about how it's okay to ask for help, and she remembers how bad she was the first day. She did ask for help and she's fine for now. Artemis pushes on, and when everything's in boxes, she looks around and realizes it's dark outside. There are a few missed texts from various people when she checks her dying phone.  
She texts them all back before she falls asleep on her couch.  
She rejoins the Team after a few weeks of patrolling here and there, and working out with a few of her friends. The scar on her heart that is the loss of Wally is slowly stitching itself together. Like falling in love with Wally, mourning him is a long process.

* * *

  
Repetition helps. She didn't expect it to, actually. She thought it'd still be painful, noticing the gaps and spaces of her life that Wally used to take up. He used to be the first thing she saw when she woke up and the last thing she saw before she closed her eyes. They had breakfast together, some classes together, and dinner together. He took up so much of her time, but now she tries to fill it with other things.  
Fridays seem to come faster than any other day, even with her longer classes. She finds herself back at Shadowcrest, happy to be at Zatanna's. No matter what, it's always one of the best parts of the week. They cook together in her massive kitchen with counter space for days. It's always warm, there's always too much food for j _ust_  Zatanna, and she's always welcome.  
Home has always been a difficult concept for her to wrap her head around. Home used to be where she grew up in Gotham, the apartment that was full of fights, too much anger for too little space when her father was there-the apartment where her mom still lives. That wasn't quite it, when she moved to Palo Alto, she thought about the other parts of Gotham she missed. It wasn't just the apartment, it was street corners, her favorite place to get coffee with Barbara before school, Barbara's apartment with her dad, patrolling with the bats and Wayne Manor. Palo Alto was a new home of sorts, she and Wally applied, got in, and she was in a dorm that was cramped and not home. The apartment wasn't really home either, home was wherever Wally was, and it was just where they were together. She always thought it'd be the first of the places they lived together. Home isn't anywhere now, really. On paper, Gotham has the strongest claim to the title.

  
It was always easy to come back with the zeta tubes, home is just a few minutes away. It would have been so much harder to move across the country without the zeta tubes. Artemis has always had a hard time imagining what being average could have been like, without the supervillain family and being on the Team. There were always advantages and disadvantages with the life she leads but she never had the separation issues. Gotham was home for so long, and she knew she could always come back. She knew she could always drop by the Cave, drop by Metropolis to see Conner, go to Star City to see Ollie and Dinah, or Gotham to see the bats. There was always something intense about the original Team, the trust and the bonds they made when they were so young. They've had gaps where they haven't talked, she hasn't had a heart to heart with Kaldur in a few weeks-but she stills knows exactly where they stand. She'd do anything for him, he'd do anything to help her, and he knows so many of her secrets.

  
Wally being gone is a gaping hole in the strength of their original seven. It would be easy to say retrospectively that Roy didn’t really count in the original team. He never wanted to be a part of it, never trained with them or cared about them before he found out he was the mole. She'd like to say or ask someone else if they knew then that something was off with him then, or if hindsight's 20/20, that it only made sense looking back. He wasn't as friendly with the Team, didn't want to be apart of it due to the brainwashing.  
She knows she missed so much being undercover, including Red Arrow finding the real Roy-now going by Arsenal. All thoughts for another time as Zatanna leans against her on the couch.  
“Do you want to look at takeout menus with me? I don’t feel like cooking,” Zatanna informs her with a grin. Shadowcrest feels more like home than her apartment in Palo Alto most days. She can’t wait to leave her lights on and go to Zatanna’s, every Friday like clockwork. Zatanna’s never asked her to leave either, or implied she wanted her to leave. She loves it here, she thinks. As she looks up at Zatanna, she realizes she loves her too. Not in the way she used to hesitantly say it either, that she meant she loved Zatanna as a friend. She loves Zatanna with everything she has, loves everything Zatanna is, and she knows she’ll always love her unconditionally.

  
“We could order carryout from here, spicy food sounds really good,” Zatanna points to a vibrant menu on the coffee table. Artemis nods and Zatanna dials the number.  
“I didn’t look at the menu,” Artemis reminds her as she hears the phone ring. Zatanna smiles at her.  
“You always get the number seven with extra rice on the side,” Zatanna says, holding the phone away from her mouth.  
“Oh, hi, I’d like to place an order for carryout under Crock,” Zatanna says into the phone. Artemis tries not to turn scarlet, it almost sounds like they’re married and they aren’t even dating. She does want to date Zatanna though, and she realizes she hasn’t thought of Wally in a few days. The passing memory didn’t make her shut down or even cry, it was just a memory, and she realizes she’s moved on. It’s taken a lot of time, but as she looks at Zatanna and realizes that they’ve had fun for the last several Fridays, she hasn’t mentioned Wally to anyone. She loved Wally once, and she’ll always be fond of him, but he’s not haunting her anymore.

* * *

  
She doesn’t ask Zatanna out immediately, Artemis can picture it going terribly. She hasn’t had a new relationship and she’s not even sure if Zee would be into her. That’s one of the reasons she meets Barbara in a sweaty gym in Gotham. It’s always more fun to work out with a partner, especially someone who knows what you need to improve in, but she has an ulterior motive.  
“So, not that I don’t love seeing you, but you usually work out in Palo Alto. What’s on your mind?” Barbara asks as she does a situp. Of course, Barbara can read her like a kids book, she grew up with detectives and police around.  
“I think I’m in love,” Artemis blurts as she picks weights up and Barbara pauses.  
“With Zatanna?” Barbara wonders and Artemis raises both eyebrows.  
“Am I that obvious?” Artemis stage whispers. Barbara laughs before she resumes her sit-ups.  
“To me you are. I don’t think most people notice. Besides, she totally likes you back,” Barbara says. Artemis drops one of the weights on her foot, mouth open as she stares at her friend.  
“She hangs out with you more than anyone. She hasn’t dated anyone in months, she talks about you all the time, and you both make eyes at each other when the other one isn’t looking. Don’t even get me started on your Friday date nights,” Barbara says. Artemis bites her lip as she thinks of a response.  
The longer she thinks about it, the easier it is to look back and see the signs of her growing feelings for Zatanna. It was so easy, and honestly, Artemis is pretty sure anyone could fall in love with Zatanna if they saw her smile. She’s gorgeous, dedicated, brilliant, and enchanting.  
“Honestly, I’m wondering why more people aren’t in love with Zatanna,” Artemis admits and Barbara laughs. A smile pulls at the corners of her mouth as Artemis watches her start to do crunches.  
“She is drop dead gorgeous and wicked smart,” Barbara admits. Artemis wonders when Dick is going to come to his senses and just date Babs already, they’ve been dancing around each other for years. That’s probably one of the reasons she isn’t giving Artemis so much grief about it right now, she thinks.  
“You don’t think Zatanna would be my rebound do you?” Artemis blurts. The thought hit her like lightning, almost expected but still sudden and powerful.  
“No. You haven’t talked about Wally in months. That’s not a bad thing, that’s a you’re _getting your life together post-Wally_ thing. You can’t just lock your heart up in some shoebox and shove it under your bed and forget about it. That’s no way to live life and impossible. You could try though, and just let yourself mourn Wally for the rest of your life and never try to love someone romantically again,” Barbara begins. Artemis lets out a long sigh.  
“But I know that you don’t want that. You deserve to be happy. And honestly, I think life is too short to decide you can only love one person. I think Wally would want you to be happy and find love again,” Barbara finishes. It’s still a delicate situation, but working out with Barbara helps her figure out how to approach it.  
“You’re the best,” Artemis tells her.  
“I know,” Barbara smiles back knowingly. In the last few months, she’s smiled so much more because it’s gotten easier and easier. She knows that everyone else is still grieving to some extent, but they’re all in better places. If she doesn’t see Dick at the Watchtower for Team missions or meetings, she’ll ask if he wants to go get a Big Belly Burger with her in Bludhaven.  
Barbara suggests going out for lunch after they shower and Artemis agrees to that easily. After that, she’ll visit her mom and check in on her. Maybe her mom will take some comfort knowing that she’s fallen in love again.

* * *

  
“It’s been a while. The Team’s in the Watchtower now, I don’t know if I told you that last time. I don’t know if Dick visits you, we don’t talk about your grave often. It’s just an empty coffin, and I know that’s how a lot of them see it. I’d like to think you’re here instead of on a hunk of ice though. I fell in love again. I fell in love with Zatanna. Although, I think I always was a little in love with her? If she asked me out before you did, this would be a very different situation. I don’t know if she was into me then, but I think that she and I have something. And you always wanted me to be happy, so I’m gonna explore it. I don’t know if we’ll date or fall in love, and I’m not saying I’m not going to visit. You’re always going to have a place in my heart as my first love and first serious relationship. And I love you. I miss you, and there are so many things I want to say,” Artemis murmurs.

  
The yellow and red flowers she set by his headstone match his costume. Bart switched to another costume a few weeks after Wally died. There was too much grief in the air when he tried to wear the original Kid Flash costume. Now, Bart’s happy and dating Jaime, according to Barry. Wally’s family still talks to her every so often and she keeps up with Barry when she sees him. Still, she knows she’s not like Bart, she’s not a part of the family anymore, no matter what Mary and Rudy say. It’s okay. That might have torn her up after they first lost him, but now it’s just a fact.  
“Dick and I went to Big Belly Burger yesterday. I can’t remember your order anymore. There are a lot of things I think I forgot because the pain of losing you was all consuming. I think that there are a few things I didn’t mean to forget, but my brain did anyway to give my heart a break. I couldn’t remember your favorite olives in the store the other day. I had to ask Dick. I lost you again in a way, like eyelashes. Everywhere and slowly, and there’s nothing I can do about it. He couldn’t remember either. He misses you, and he and Barbara are still dancing around each other. You called that. I’ll let you know if they get together. Oh, I think Bart and Jaime had their anniversary the other day, they looked happy,” Artemis continues.

  
She’s never really known if he can hear her, there’s never been some magical sign of him here, and she’s never seen his ghost. Though she thought he was haunting her for a while, Artemis is fairly sure he moved on. To where, she’s not really sure, but she knows that she’s moved on too, in a much different way. She spends more time with him before she walks back to the closest zeta tube.  
If she ever explained it to one of her Stanford friends, they’d assume she was in a pen pal program. She saw people from Gotham, Central City, Happy Harbor, New York, and Star City consistently when she was in high school. They never really explained how they met or started dating to their college friends, now that Artemis thinks about it. They always just said they were dating and had been for a few years.  
Her stomach growls and she thinks of the Meditteranean place Zatanna introduced her to a few months ago. She sends a quick text before she goes through the zeta beam. Warm pita bread sounds divine.

* * *

  
Zatanna's waiting with a massive spread when she arrives at Shadowcrest.  
"I love you," spills out of Artemis's mouth. Thankfully, Zatanna just smiles back.  
"Love you too, do you want dessert first?" Zee asks.  
"Did you get baklava?" Artemis teases, like she doesn't know Zatanna's order perfectly. Of course, she got baklava, she always orders too much for one person, and Artemis is always happy to help her eat it. Zatanna just rolls her eyes at that.  
"I'm glad you called, I have something I need to get off my chest," Zatanna confesses. Artemis raises an eyebrow and stops trying to divide food for a moment.  
"I'm in love with you. And I didn't mean to fall in love with you and you're still-I'm not trying to replace anyone. I just didn't want to keep any secrets from you because I knew it'd come out sooner or later, and I wanted to control it. I was talking to M'gann today and she thought we were dating and it fell together for me," Zatanna admits, looking at the falafel instead of anything else.  
"I still miss Wally, but I'm not in love with him anymore. I kind of had the same thing happen to me this week when I met Barbara for lunch. How much falafel do you want?" Artemis asks and Zatanna laughs out of relief.  
"So that's it? Are we dating now?" Zatanna wonders, looking into her eyes.  
"If you want to. I'm not delicate and healing like I was. I'm ready to date again, and I'd love to date you. Since we kind of already act like a couple," Artemis tells her as she passes the falafel over in exchange for the mountain of warm pita bread on another plate.  
"Great. Then we're dating. Pass me the hummus," Zatanna tells her. It was almost romantic, Artemis thinks as she passes it.

Then again, she and Zatanna don't do things very traditionally.  
It's perfect for them and their excessive amounts of baklava. Artemis doesn't feel delicate anymore, she feels invincible.

**Author's Note:**

> The eyelashes line was a reference to the 1 line poem by Rupi Kaur, "'i am losing parts of you like i lose eyelashes unknowingly and everywhere"  
> the title and some of the fic was inspired by Delicate by Taylor Swift. It got stuck in my head and this came out.


End file.
